Colorado lawmakers eye concealed-weapons bills

DENVER -- A Colorado Senate committee rejected a measure Wednesday to encourage more businesses to allow patrons to carry concealed weapons. The Republican measure would have required businesses such as shopping malls or movie theaters to provide armed security if patrons can't carry guns.

Also Wednesday, a Republican senator proposed a measure to allow more school employees to carry concealed weapons. The measure being introduced is another attempt to add security at public schools. A Democratic committee rejected a related proposal earlier this week.

The legislative action on guns came as Congress began its first gun control hearing since 20 elementary school children were shot to death in Newtown, Conn., late last year.

A look at the gun control developments Wednesday in Colorado:

Another Republican proposal to expand armed security was rejected in the Democratic Senate.

Senators voted on a party-line 3-2 slate to reject a proposal to require private businesses to have armed security if patrons aren't allowed to carry concealed weapons.

It was the second GOP gun bill rejected this week. The same committee voted against concealed weapons for school employees.

Republican Sen. Kent Lambert of Colorado Springs choked up while reading accounts of security at the Aurora theater where dozens were shot last July. He argued that his proposal could make places like theaters and shopping malls safer.

Advertisement

But the bill failed after Colorado's police chiefs association opposed it and others raised questions about large gatherings like football games.

"Imagine the hysteria that can be whipped up even at a Little League game," said Annmarie Jensen, a lobbyist for the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police. "It's crazy what could go wrong."

The Senate committee that voted down the guns-in-businesses proposal rejected another proposal earlier this week to allow schools to permit employees to carry concealed weapons.

Some Democrats worry that expanding the list of places where concealed weapons are permitted won't make people safer. Police, they argue, may not immediately know who the "good guys" are. Those skeptics have pointed out that accused Aurora movie theater shooter James Holmes was at first confused for an officer when authorities first arrived to the July shooting massacre. Democrats also say gun accidents would increase.

Senate President John Morse, a Democrat and former police chief, has said shootings would only increase if more people carried guns.

Some Republicans aren't giving up on the idea of more armed teachers in schools.

Republican Sen. Greg Brophy of Wray was preparing to introduce as bill Wednesday to expand security-officer training available to classroom teachers. His proposal could lead to more teachers having state authorization to carry concealed weapons even on state property.

Brophy said Wednesday his bill would address the school-safety piece that was rejected once. He wasn't optimistic that his version would fare any better in the Democratic-controlled Legislature, though.

"I'm just trying to think of ways to make our kids safer at schools," Brophy said. "But to me, it's obvious that the Democrats here have an extreme anti-gun agenda."

Colorado's top-ranked Democrat -- Gov. John Hickenlooper -- is taking on that perception next week when he's scheduled to meet with the head of the National Rifle Association. David A. Keene was headed to Denver for a private meeting with Hickenlooper on Feb. 7.

Colorado's governor has called for expanded background checks on gun purchases. He asked the Legislature to pass such a bill in his annual State of State address earlier this year.

"Let's examine our laws and make the changes needed to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people," Hickenlooper said.

Gun-rights activists say that expanding background checks to private purchases is unworkable and unlikely to keep guns from dangerous people.

Local duo joining overseas exhibition excursionFilippo Swartz went to Italy, where his mother was born and he spent the first year or so of his life, every summer until he had to stick around to be a part of summer football activities for the Longmont High School team. Full Story

MacIntyre says the completed project will be best in Pac-12There were bulldozers, hard hats, mud, concrete trucks, blueprints, mud, cranes, lots of noise and, uh, mud, during the last recruiting cycle when Colorado football coach Mike MacIntyre brought recruits to campus. Full Story

Most people don't play guitar like Grayson Erhard does. That's because most people can't play guitar like he does. The guitarist for Fort Collins' Aspen Hourglass often uses a difficult two-hands-on-the-fretboard technique that Eddie Van Halen first popularized but which players such as Erhard have developed beyond pop-rock vulgarity.
Full Story